Throughout our lives we have to make difficult, life-changing decisions, such as which job to take, which job candidate to hire, and who's worthy of your "til death do us part" vow. You can increase your odds of making a happy choice with this mathematical formula.

The dilemma is called "The Marriage Problem" (or "The Secretary Problem"). When you're dating, for example, how do you know that this person is The One? If you decide to marry him or her, you've cut yourself off from all other potential soul mates.

NPR reports on the math-based strategy to solve this dilemma, developed by Martin Gardner in the 1960s [emphasis mine]:

[Author of The Grapes of Math, Alex Bellos] writes: "Imagine that you are interviewing 20 people to be your secretary [or your spouse or your garage mechanic] with the rule that you must decide at the end of each interview whether or not to give that applicant the job." If you offer the job to somebody, game's up. You can't go on and meet the others. "If you haven't chosen anyone by the time you see the last candidate, you must offer the job to her," Alex writes (not assuming that all secretaries are female — he's just adapting the attitudes of the early '60s).

So remember: At the end of each interview, you either make an offer or you move on.

If you don't make an offer, no going back. Once you make an offer, the game stops.

According to Martin Gardner, who in 1960 described the formula (partly worked out earlier by others), the best way to proceed is to interview (or date) the first 36.8 percent of the candidates. Don't hire (or marry) any of them, but as soon as you meet a candidate who's better than the best of that first group — that's the one you choose! Yes, the Very Best Candidate might show up in that first 36.8 percent — in which case you'll be stuck with second best, but still, if you like favorable odds, this is the best way to go.

Apparently, this 36.8 percent number has been proven time and again to increase satisfaction. By "trying out" the first 36.8 percent but not not ending the "game" or search there, you compile a group that you can compare all future people to.

It's not a foolproof strategy by any means—maybe you fall hopelessly in love with the first person you date—but in other circumstances when you have multiple options, mathematicians say it's a better strategy than picking at random.